Philippine petchem ops unscathed by super typhoon Haiyan

11 November 2013 12:32[Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Petrochemical operations in the northern Philippines were running normally on Monday following the super typhoon Haiyan, which is feared to have killed thousands in the central part of the country.

Major petrochemical operations are located in Luzon, the biggest of the three groups of islands in the Philippines and located north of the Visayas region, which was battered by the typhoon.

Petron Corp has production facilities at Limay in Bataan province, while JG Summit has polymer plants in Batangas province, where it also building a naphtha cracker. Bataan and Batangas are both in Luzon.

Typhoon Haiyan, considered as the strongest recorded typhoon, swept through six central Philippine islands on 8 November, bringing sustained winds of 235 km/h (146mph) and waves as high as 15 metres, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Badly hit Tacloban city, the capital of Leyte province, was placed under a state of calamity on Monday.

Police and local government officials were quoted in media reports as estimating the death toll in the city alone at 10,000.

After causing widespread devastation in the Philippines, Haiyan has weakened as it coursed towards Vietnam, where it made a landfall 160km southeast of the capital Hanoi on Monday morning, and moved on to the southern coast of China.

Some 200,000 people were evacuated in central Vietnam, while six Haiyan-related deaths in China were reported.

Meanwhile, charterers and ship owners are taking a cautious stance on the adverse weather development in the region.

No significant delays were reported so far as the typhoon weakens, a southeast Asian shipping source said.

Some vessels are taking alternative routes as a precautionary measure, according to another industry source.